FAMILY CANIDjE. 
43 
The American Wolf, hitherto confounded by our systematic writers with the European, 
offers many varieties, which, as in dogs, seem to affect particular localities. In this State we 
have two varieties. 
Var. a. Grey Wolf. White or greyish white in winter ; in summer it has short reddish 
hairs. This is the most common kind. 
Var. b. Black Wolf. Entirely black, more bulky and powerful than the preceding. Very 
rare. 
The Wolf, in this State, confines its depredations chiefly to deer and other animals. In 
some of the southern counties, where they were formerly so numerous as to require legislative 
enactments, they are now entirely extirpated. Vanderdonck, writing from New-York about 
the year 1645, says, that one of the principal objections to keeping sheep in the Colony, was 
the number of wolves. They are still found in the mountainous and wooded parts of the 
State, and, we believe, are most numerous in St. Lawrence and the adjacent counties. We 
have been assured by intelligent hunters, that their ravages among deer are so great that they 
destroy five to one killed by man. They follow deer either singly, or in packs of eight or 
ten, with all the ardor of a pack of hounds, and with a prolonged howl. They usually select 
a young or injured deer, and trust more to tire him down, than to overtake him by superior 
speed. In the summer, their prey easily escapes by taking to the water ; but in winter, the 
same instinct leads to his immediate capture, for on the ice the w r olf quickly overtakes him. 
Towards spring, there is scarcely a lake in the north of the State that has not numerous car¬ 
cases of deer on its frozen surface. In most of the counties, bounties varying from ten to 
twenty dollars per head are offered for the wolf, paid partly by the State, and partly by the 
county and the township. 
Our wolf is equally voracious and cowardly, flying before man. I have, however, known 
them, when satiating their hunger over the carcase of a deer, to snarl and snap at the approach 
of a man, and only to leave their prey reluctantly when he arrived almost within striking 
distance. 
[EXTRA-LIMITAL) 
Var. a. Dusky Wolf. (Say, Long’s E.xped. Vol. 1, p. 333. Richardson, pi. 3.) Northern and 
Western Regions. 
Var. b. Pied Wolf. (Richardson, Vol. 1, p. 68.) Arctic Regions. 
Var. c. White Wolf. (Lewis and Clark, Vol. 1, p. 107.) Arctic and Western Regions. 
Var. d. Florida Wolf. (Bartram, p. 199.) 
Var. e. Yellow Wolf. (Lewis &, Clark, Vol. 1, p. 40.) Missouri. 
Var. f. Prairie Wolf. (Say, Long’s E.xped. Vol. 1, p. 27 and 162.) Missouri. 
